Find a Way
by youarenotalone
Summary: Resumed! Set Post-Prince Caspian. Peter has been sent back to England for good and Caspian must remain in Narnia. Things look hopeless for the lovers until Edmund, called back to Narnia, makes it his mission to reunite the two kings of Narnia. Slash.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue me.**

So still

So still. No matter how long Peter stared at the trees outside his window, they never danced. This wasn't Narnia and Peter would never see the trees dance again. He would never see centaurs or dwarfs. He would never talk to Aslan or spend nights camped out at the ruins of Cair Paravel. He would never cross blades on the battlefield.

He would never see Caspian again.

It was this thought more than all the others that plagued Peter's thoughts, kept him awake at night and caused the silent tears he allowed to fall only after the other boys in his dorm were fast asleep.

They had had so little time together. He was grateful for the extra two months Aslan had given them at the former Telmarine castle, for both Peter and Caspian knew he would have been sent home right after the battle had Aslan not chosen to give the two lovers some final time together. Pulling his legs to his chest, Peter leaned against the wall of the bay window. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine the cushioned backrest was Caspian, tried to picture his strong arms holding him in a comforting embrace. But when he opened his eyes, he had only the cold air for comfort.

Forehead pressed against the cool windowpane, Peter stared outside, but he did not see the trees or the night sky. Instead, he saw his final trip to Narnia, playing out like a movie in his mind. The memory of the first time they had kissed presented itself before Peter's eyes.

_"What can we do? The Telamrine soldiers will be here by nightfall next and they outnumber us ten-to-one at least."_

_"Your expertise far surpasses my own, Your Majesty, and the decision lies with you." _

_"I know Narnians, you know Telmarines. You know far better than I how to defeat them." _

_After over two hours in the tomb fortress, Peter and Caspian were no closer to a plan and much closer to desperation. _

_"I can't do this!" Caspian cried out suddenly, "This is a task far more difficult than I have ever encountered. I do not know what to do and when I try to help, I only make things worse. You would be far better off without me here to distract you with stupid questions and proposals. I'm sorry for keeping you awake, Your Majesty." Peter quickly drew his eyes from the maps on the broken table to Caspian's pained face. Caspian moved to depart, but Peter's hand locked around Caspian's wrist, preventing him from leaving. _

_"Caspian. You are an amazing leader. You united the Narnians and turned them into an army. Despite being a Telmaraine noble, you gained their trust. You managed to summon my siblings and me here, something people have been trying to do for thirteen hundred years. You can do this. We can do this." Eyes locked with Caspian's, Peter wasn't sure exactly how it happened, but it had and before he knew it he and Caspian were locked in a sweet embrace of arms, lips and tongues. _

One of Peter's most cherished memories floated through his mind next. It was after the war, in safety where they had little to worry about and much time to spend together.

_Wandering hand-in-hand through one of the orchards, the two lovers walked in a comfortable silence, the occasional spoken thought drifting through the air. Caspian reached up and pulled an apple off a nearby tree, took a bite and offered it to Peter. The two boys had wandered all night, mindful of neither the time nor anything else save for themselves and the stars around them. Moving closer to Caspian for warmth and feeling Caspian's strong arms wrap him in a familiar embrace, Peter knew there was nowhere else in the world that would ever feel as safe. Tilting his head up to capture Caspian's lips in a deep kiss, Peter knew he never wanted it to end. _

Despite the High King's wishes, his time with Caspian had drawn to a close. Peter crushed his eyes shut, trying to stop the painful memory, but the scene only continued to play out, painted on the insides of his eyelids.

_Peter stood in the centre of the room, shaking. He had known this was coming, he knew he would have to leave soon, but that didn't make the news much easier to take. Aslan had just informed him and Susan that they were to leave that evening with any Telmarines who chose to start a new life in England. With a comforting squeeze, Susan let go of her brother's arm and moved to leave with Aslan._

_"Peter! Peter where are you? Susan said you were down this way. Peter which room are y-" Caspian's calls fell short as he turned into the doorway and saw Peter standing lost and confused in the room. He quickly rushed over and guided Peter to a nearby sofa._

_"Peter what's wrong? Peter say something! Tell me what's wrong! Is everyone okay? Is someone hurt? Tell me what's wrong, you are scaring me!"_

_"I am… I am leaving… tonight. Aslan just said. Me and Susan and Lucy and Edmond." Peter felt Caspian's grip on his shoulder loosen slightly at the news before tightening again._

_"Shhh Peter it's okay, we both knew this would be coming. Don't worry, Love, you'll be back soon."_

_"That's just it, Caspian." Peter turned, unable to meet his lover's gaze, "Aslan says I am not coming back."_

_"What?" Caspian managed to whisper. Peter didn't need to look meet Caspian's eyes, he knew the pain they would hold._

_"Susan and I, once we leave tonight, we can't return."_

_The two lovers huddled together on the crimson couch, clinging on to each other as tightly as they could. It was almost as if by holding on to each other they could stop the inevitable. They stayed together on the same couch for hours, a mess of limbs, lips and words of comfort. At the end of the day, a servant coughed quietly and announced, in a very apologetic voice, that everyone had assembled._

_The formal goodbyes seemed to take only minutes and before Peter knew it, it was time to leave. After one final, beautiful kiss, Peter allowed Edmond's hand on his shoulder to guide him towards the tree, and with one final look back, he was gone._

**So that is chapter one. There is obviously a lot more left. The next chapter should be up sometime tomorrow. Thoughts? Comments? Reviews?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"You coming? Breakfast ends in fifteen minutes." Peter shook his head in response to his dorm mate's question. Once he heard the door slam shut, silencing the voices of the five boys who had just left the room, Peter slowly pulled himself away from the window. Another sleepless night. Figuring he ought to shower, more for the sake of his classmates than his own personal well being, he quickly washed himself before finding a relatively clean uniform and getting dressed. With only five minutes to get across campus before the final bell, Peter gathered his books and walked at a pace that clearly showed he was in no hurry to reach his final destination.

"Late again Pevensie. Take your seat." Without so much as a glance towards the professor, Peter sidled towards his seat in the very back corner of the room. As the teacher began his lecture on the difference between reptiles and amphibians, Peter pulled his notebook out of his messenger bag and flipped through it until he found a blank page. Small doodles of Narnia and the people that inhabited it, during both their first childhood in Narnia and their second, littered the pages and Peter settled down to add another drawing to the page. This time the pencil began to create the outline of a sword on the page. Throughout the duration of the class, the drawing became more and more intricate until it was an almost perfect representation of his old weapon. Everything from the grooves on the handle to the lettering on the blade was perfect. As Peter went over the lines on the paper he couldn't help but wonder where the sword was now. The last time he had seen it was when he left it with Caspian before returning to England. Wherever the sword was, it was with Caspian.

Peter never drew Caspian himself. He had tried once, but failed so dismally he "accidentally" spilled ink all over the page. Instead he settled for drawing images of things that reminded him of his beloved and occasionally covering an entire page in Xs (Deciding it would be difficult to try and explain why he had 'Caspian' written all over his notebook should someone read it, Peter used X to stand for Caspian the Tenth).

Two hours later, Peter shuffled out of the classroom and into his next one, ready to spend the class in exactly the same fashion as he had the last. Deeply immersed in a drawing of Cair Paravel, the left half as it had been thirteen hundred years ago, the right half the ruins it had been reduced to when he had returned, Peter only caught bits and pieces of the lecture. History was the only class Peter even remotely cared about, but British history seemed so mundane compared to Narnian history. Half listening, Peter continued his drawing of his former home.

"After removing Alexander the Great from his throne, Serbia's crown was handed over to the new King Peter"

"It's High King Peter, actually." Peter's eyes widened as he covered his mouth, realizing his error the instant it passed his lips.

"What was that, Pevensie?"

"Nothing, sir." Peter tried to come up with some sort of cover for his slip-up, "It's just well I thought that King Peter gave himself the title of High King. I don't know why."

"No. No he didn't. There is no such thing as a 'High King'. I don't know where you got that idea. Now if I may continue, King Peter reigned until he stepped down due to health complications following the Balkan Wars…"

Peter silently chastised himself for making himself look like an idiot and returned to his notebook for the remainder of the class. After what seemed like an eternity, the bell rang and Peter hurried out of the classroom. Ever since his return from Narnia over a year ago, or thirteen hundred years ago depending on how you look at it, Peter had avoided his school friends. By this point they had gotten the hint and left him alone aside from the occasional pleasantries.

Edmund was another story. He was everywhere, hunting down Peter and trying to talk to him. Lately Peter found it easiest to avoid him by leaving his class as soon as possible and ducking into an unused classroom. Glancing around to ensure that Edmund wasn't following him, he quietly slipped inside the empty room. Eyes downcast, he walked slowly towards a desk, set his bag down, and sat on top of the desk, feet on the chair in front of his. A small couch alerted him to another presence in the room. He glanced up quickly, his eyes meeting those of his younger brother's.

"Hey Pete, let's chat."

"About what?"

"About whatever. Maybe start with the weather, move on to classes and finish up with whatever is bothering you so much you avoid me, Susan and even Lucy."

"I've not been avoiding you." By this time Edmund had moved onto the desk in front of Peter's and turned so he was facing his brother.

"Good, then you won't mind if I eat with you."

"The food is in the dining hall. You go down, I'll see you later."

"I brought sandwiches. One of which you will eat."

"I'm not hungry." In response, Edmund simply unwrapped a sandwich and handed it to his brother. Resentfully, Peter took the sandwich from Edmund and took a small bite. Edmund watched carefully until Peter had consumed the entire ham and cheese sandwich before talking again.

"Thank you. Now, care to share what's on your mind?"

"No, not really."

"C'mon Peter! I know you miss Narnia, I know you miss Caspian and I'm _sorry_ but there is nothing any of us can do about it and it is killing us to see you like this!" Peter sighed, staring at his shoes intently. He knew Edmund was right, but that didn't mean he had to concede without a fight.

"You have no idea what it feels like to lose your home and the love of your life in the same instant. No idea, Ed."

"I know, I miss Narnia and everyone as well. I know I have no idea, I may end up returning at some point, but until then I'm stuck here same as you."

"It's not the 'same as me' Ed! You left behind friends and your home. You have friends here and you have a life here. My life is in Narnia with Caspian, not here in this hell-hole."

"You still have us! I know you hurt a lot, but you can't keep shutting out everything around you because of it."

The bell rang, interrupting the discussion and Peter moved to leave, but Edmund stopped him. One look from his brother told him they were not going to class.

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

Following Edmond out the door, Peter found that he already felt a little bit better than he had before.

**I'm not really all that happy with the dialogue at the end of this scene, but since I accidentally sent it in as a new chapter about half way through, I wanted to get it out because alerts and stuff say there is a new chapter. **

**Two questions, first: would people rather I go back and fix the end of this chapter, or move on and start working on chapter three. Second: would people rather I stuck to some of the basic plotline of Dawn Treader, or would that spoil the next movie for people who may not have read the book. Input is appreciated!  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay so a million and ten apologies for the lack of updates. I'd like to blame it all on illness and training for a new job, but rereading Dawn Treader may have played a sort of role. I had to get my mind away from Caspian/Edmund and back to Caspian/Peter. There will definitely be an Edmund/Caspian story in the works after this one is completed, however. Very sorry again for the delayed update! I meant to reply to the comments here, but the apology took up all the room.**

"No Ed, there is no way I'm getting on a train. We won't get back in time. The school will be angry. It's a bad idea."

"The school won't know, there is a hole in the parameter that I discovered and Saint Finbar's has a much later curfew than Hendon does. After all, girls are so much more responsible." He added that last bit in a rather sarcastic tone.

"What? Girls?" A look of dawning comprehension graced Peter's face. "Ed I can't believe you dragged Su and Lucy into this!"

"Dragged them? It was Lucy that helped me come up with this plan."

"And what plan is this exactly?" Purchasing the tickets, Edmund stepped onto the platform and refused to speak of the matter any further. After about ten minutes of tense silence, the train pulled into the station. Fortunately, the boys' compartment was almost completely empty with the exception of one very old lady who was so fast asleep that Edmund wanted to poke her to make sure she wasn't dead.

The train ride was spent in relative silence. Edmund tried numerous times to engage Peter in some sort of conversation, but Peter refused to look up from his notebook. After about five minutes, Edmund gave up and the silence was only pierced by the occasional "Edmund, tell me where the hell we are going" followed by the immediate "No." Bored by the lack of conversation, Edmund amused himself for the remainder of the trip by throwing bits of paper at the sleeping lady.

"Where are Susan and Lucy anyways?" Peter asked as they exited the train.

"Already there, now c'mon it is only a few blocks away. Peter's basic knowledge of the London Underground told him they were nowhere near Finchley. He had never been out to this part of the city and he knew his brother and sisters hadn't either. Intrigued, confused and angry, Peter followed Edmund down one street, up another, through an alleyway that made Peter take a step closer to his brother and down a final street until they stopped outside an old house.

The house was boarded up and had clearly been uninhabited for quite a number of years. Despite its abandoned state, the house showed no signs of disintegration and looked sturdy enough.

"It was owned by some rich old fellow. When he found out his son had been killed in the war, the war to end all wars I mean not the current one, he died of sadness (didn't know that was possible). Since his last will and testament left everything to his son, noöne knew what to do with the place and because it was during the war everyone had better things to do so they just boarded it up and by the time the war was over, people had forgotten all about it. Just think about all the stuff in this house! I know it isn't as big as Professor Kirke's house, but it is the best we could do in the city."

"Well that's just fascinating Ed, but-" Peter was cut off by a high-pitched yell of "PETER!" and a tight hug around his waist. Peter smiled reluctantly at his sister and hugged back. Susan came out of the house after Lucy at a much more reserved pace and greeted her brother with a short hug and a peck on the cheek. The three youngest Pevensies started towards the house but Peter remained stationary.

"Halt. I the High King Peter command you to go no farther."

"C'mon Peter," Lucy laughed, "this isn't Narnia, you are just our big brother here and I can ignore you just as well as I can ignore Edmund or Susan."

"I know this isn't Narnia." Peter grumbled so quietly noöne could hear him. "In Narnia I don't get dragged to dingy old houses by my baby brother." And with that, he entered the house behind his siblings.

The house was perfectly preserved, like a time capsule. A thin layer of grey dust covered everything in sight, giving the whole house an even older feel. Even Peter couldn't deny to himself (though he was having no problem denying it to others) that the house looked like a lot of fun to explore. The staircase gave off a very eerie feel, and while Lucy was keen to ascend it right away, Edmund and Susan overruled her. Peter would have liked to see the upstairs, too, but he maintained his apathetic countenance as he followed his siblings into the dining hall on the left.

The large table still had a tablecloth on it, moth eaten and yellowing, as well as a vase of long dead flowers. The children spent a while examining the old silver, tarnished after years of neglect, but quickly bored of the room and proceeded to find a new location. After exploring a few more downstairs rooms the children wandered into one of the sitting rooms and were instantly drawn to one of the paintings.

The picture depicted a beautiful clearing in an otherwise heavily populated wood. The stream was not blue, green or brown like all other streams, but a deep shade of violet. The setting sun barely shining through the dense foliage and reflecting off the purple water and in the very corner of the picture was a small hut. All of the paintings at their schools were of former headmasters and other influential figures so it was a nice change from staring at paintings of stuffy old men. Even Peter couldn't help himself from speculating about who might live in the hut with his siblings and it wasn't until much later that they were able to draw themselves away from the canvas.

Finally, the children agreed that it was time to explore upstairs and they climbed the stairs, Lucy first (at her request) followed by Peter, Edmund and finally Susan. Instead of finding a corridor with different doors leading to bedrooms and bathrooms as one might expect, the children stumbled upon something much more magnificent. There, right before the children, was the most magnificent home library any of them had ever seen.

"It's bigger than our whole house."

"No one could ever read this many books"

"I wonder what kind of books they are"

"C'mon Su," Lucy called, tugging on her sister's arm, "let's go see if he had any fantasy books." As Lucy dragged her down an aisle of books, Susan managed to turn around and yell to her brothers to stick together. "It would be easy to get lost in here" she managed to explain before Lucy led her down another aisle and out of sight.

Edmund glanced up at his brother, delighted to see that, while not smiling, Peter looked much happier. The day of exploration was doing wonders for him. They started down an aisle in the opposite direction of the girls. They ran across all types of books from botany to heraldry. Shockingly, they spent a bit more time on the heraldry than the botany. Up and down, aisle after aisle they wandered examining every book that caught their eye. The old man seemed to have collected books on every subject imaginable. They wandered for hours and never once ran into Susan and Lucy. The library seemed almost too big for the house, then again, it was a very large house.

"Hey Peter, have you ever heard of Greantia?"

"Nope, why?"

"This book, 'in the far off country of Greantia, trade with the Yevenese prospered…' I've never heard of Greantia, or Yeven."

"Well maybe if you had let me go to geography class today I'd know" Peter replied, but Edmund could tell his voice didn't carry the same malice it had earlier that day. "What else does it say about the countries?"

Edmund and Peter continued reading about Greantia, Yeven and other strange countries that they figured bust have existed long ago for a long while before moving on. After a while of exploring in silence, Edmund called out to his brother. He was crouched on the floor, looking at the very bottom shelf and Peter knelt down to see what Edmund was pointing out. Edmund had a book open on the floor, but the book contained no text. Reaching up, he grabbed another book off the shelf, it had an identical cover to the blank book, faded gold colour with an embossed lion on the spine, nothing else, and it too was completely blank. As Edmund moved to hand one of the books to Peter, he noticed something fall out of the spine. Picking it up off the ground, Peter turned it over in his hand.

"It's a pen. What the hell is a pen doing in the spine of a book?" Peter questioned and Edmund moved the book he was holding into an upright position until a pen fell out of his as well.  
"That's bizarre. Maybe they are like those teen diary things, maybe we are supposed to spill all our secrets." Edmund joked. "Dear diary, today in the cafeteria Bobby Franks actually looked at me, oh his eyes are just dreamy! Do you think he'll ever ask me to the winter formal? Not with that Michelle Anderson around I bet. Talk to you soon, Love Shannon." Edmund recited all of this in a high pitched voice while pretending to write in the blank book and, for the first time in nearly a month, Peter actually laughed. Edmund looked down at him surprised and smiled to himself. _Best. Plan. Ever._

The boys remained seated with the two blank books, identical in every way, each no larger than a pocket dictionary until they heard Susan yelling at them from far off.

"We should go find them."

"Yeah."

"We ought to put the books back then."

"Why?" Questioned Peter, surprising Edmund.

"Well, because they aren't ours."

"But it's not like anyone else uses them. Or like they could read them anyways. Besides it doesn't look like they've been opened once since they were put on this shelf, the binding cracked when we opened it."

"I know, I really don't want to leave them here either. There is something so mysterious (he had to stop himself from saying magical, knowing that this was England and not Narnia and magic there meant top hats and bunny rabbits) about them, but all the same, it is still stealing." With that they put the books back on the shelf and hurried off to find Lucy and Susan.

…………

"If I ever have to write a research paper on anything, screw the library, I'm just going back there."

"Edmund! Language!" Susan warned, sounding more like a parent than a sibling. The Pevensies were on the train back to their schools and couldn't stop discussing the impressive library. All of the other wonderful things they'd discovered during the day were driven to the back of their minds as they shared with each other all the wonderful books they'd found.

"And there was one with unicorns that turned into dragons…"

"And it had all the information on the different type of swords fighting. We learned to fight ­­­­­­­­­­­ style apparently and…"

"You wouldn't believe the book on extinct animals we found. Did you know there was once an island filled with three-foot tall people? Here. In this world…"

"And there was this one with all these different countries I'd never heard of…" They were all talking rapidly in over excited voices, listening to the others as they spilled their own stories. It was the first adventure they had had together in ages and they were all enjoying themselves immensely. Even Peter couldn't hide his excitement as he talked about the different countries mentioned in the book. Eventually, the train reached the girls' stop, conveniently located right across the street from their school, and the boys hugged goodbye to their sisters, Edmund was clearly unhappy about hugging Susan in a public place, explaining that it was okay to hug your little sister, but older sisters were different, but he did it anyways.

"Hey Ed?" Peter questioned about ten minutes later.

"Yeah?"

"Did you happen to bring a torch, it's getting dark and I don't fancy wandering the streets in the dark."

"Of course. I borrowed one from Jimmy, you know the tall awkward kid with freckles?" Edmund fished around in his messenger bag for the torch, but his hand fell on something much more interesting. Slowly, eyes round, he pulled the gold book out of his bag.

"Ed! You took one?" Peter sounded surprised.

"Of course not! You saw me put it back. Check your bag."

"Yeah okay, so you are telling me that if I just pick up my bag," he paused to pick up his bag "and reached inside it" he did that too "that I'll find the-" he stopped short, drawing out the gold book, a stunned look on his face.

The remainder of the ride was spent in bewildered silence, glancing from the books to the other person and back again. Before they had sensed there was something very strange about the books, but now there was no doubt. These were no teen journals.

**There it is. Leave a nice review, or a mean review if your little heart desires, and I should have the next chapter up tomorrow morning. No more distractions, I promise. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Dead computer, lost documents. New computer, no decent word processor. Fun stuff.**

Fifteen minutes later the Pevensie boys were sitting in their house's living room, books in hand. Neither one of them could come up with an explanation of how the books could have found their way into the messenger bags. Magic was the most obvious explanation, but neither boy wanted to say it out loud because entertaining the idea that there could be magic involved was setting themselves up for so much potential disappointment. And so they continued to stare in wonder, occasionally vocalizing a theory. Edmund picked up the pen, miraculously full of ink and twirled it between his fingers. Suddenly the tip twisted off the fountain pen and a jot f ink spurted out of the pen and onto the open page of his book.

"Oi!" Peter yelled, "You got ink on my book!"

"I did not! Edmund replied, hurrying to put the head back on his pen, "you're way over there! There is no way the ink got on it. It only splashed on my book right here." Edmund reached out and grabbed his book, pointing to where the ink blot should have been, but there was no ink blot. His eyebrows met in the centre as he looked around for where the ink had landed. Peter held out his book and on the left hand corner of the page was an ink stain about the size of a one pound coin.

Both boys stared at Peter's book in wonder, fixated on the blot on the page. Edmund's book was still blank. Carefully, Peter withdrew his pen from the spine of the book and wrote "hello" in handwriting strangely reminiscent of the writing he used to have in Narnia. His page stayed blank, but as he wrote, the letters appeared on the open page in Edmund's book.

The next hour was spent learning exactly what these magical books, for now they were clearly magical, could and couldn't do. They learned that the writing appears on whatever page the person first opens to, or is open on at the time unless that page was already full in which case it moved on to the next one. "Convenient," Edmund stated, "I'd hate to have to flip through all the pages each time." Less convenient, yet still practical was the books' habit of erasing messages once they were closed. By the end of the hour the brothers found themselves sitting at opposite ends of the room, writing notes to each other and pushing the books to their limits. Peter drew pictures in his book to see how they would turn out, they weren't his best work, but, then again, the pen wasn't the ideal drawing utensil. He had tried using other pens and pencils, but none worked.

After a while, they both decided it was probably time to turn in, classes started in about six hours. Peter got the best night's sleep he had in a long time.

--

The next day, neither Pevensie boy paid much attention in class. While people found it a little off that Edmund would be reading and taking notes in class, no one even noticed Peter's substitution of his notebook for the newer, fancier, book. There wasn't much to say, but neither Peter nor Edmund could keep away from their book or the magic it clearly possessed.

'_My teacher sounds like a broken foghorn'_

'_My class is so boring'_

_'Hah! I bet Lucy and Susan didn't find anything this interesting'_

Short thoughts and the occasional illustration from Peter littered the pages. Edmund was busy re-reading a short comic strip about the teacher they both had for gym when he noticed what looked like text on next piece of paper. Flipping the page, Edmund read Peter's message.

_'Do you think this is a sign we will be needed in Narnia soon?'_ Edmund shut the book quickly. They had avoided mentioning Narnia directly in case a classmate decided reading over shoulders was an acceptable way to pass the time. Opening the book again, Edmund wrote back, _"I doubt it, Pete, you know what Aslan said…"_

_'I know, but we can't have just found them out of coincidence!'_

_'Perhaps we were drawn to them _because_ we have been to Narnia'_

_'You mean lived in Narnia. Ruled Narnia'_ Edmund found himself seriously hoping Peter had the sense to close the book as often as he did.  
_'Yes Peter, I know that we lived there at one point, but not anymore. Can't we just be happy that we have a little bit of magic here now?'_

_'I'd rather have no magic there than all the magic in all the worlds here'_

It was clearly time to change the subject. If he couldn't convince Peter to just be happy in Finchley face-to-face, how could he possibly get through to him with ink and paper? Edmund wasn't exactly a brilliant writer.

_'Think we should show these books to Susan and Lu?'_

_'Probably'_

_'What about just Lucy?'_

_'Why not Susan?'_

_'More likely than not she'd make us put them back'_

_'Well we can't exactly show up at Saint Finbar's and refuse to talk to Susan can we?' _

After much deliberation, they decided that they couldn't risk showing the books to Lucy in the chance that Susan might notice them. At first they had felt a little bad about taking the books, but now each boy felt there was a reason they had them and were not particularly inclined to return them to a dusty shelf. What good could they possibly do there anyways?

Right as Edmund was about to start a note to Peter about the rather boorish kid sitting in front of him, said boorish kid turned around and whisked the book out of Edmund's hands. Apparently the teacher had excused herself from the classroom for a moment, something Edmund had failed to notice until right then, and he was all alone in this classroom of rather stupid rugby players. Science just wasn't Edmund's subject. Teachers nowadays didn't much appreciate essays about how the world began from a lion's song. They wanted something about particles and other nonsense. Unlike Edmund, the rest of the people in his remedial biology class were just plain stupid and none of them were his friends.

"Dearest Diary," the boy, Arnold, pretended to read, "today I went to the shopping centre and found the cutest shoes ever. They will look just smashing with my eyes." He paused to give his cronies time to get the complex joke and laugh appropriately. Then, deciding that just pretending to read wasn't enough, he reached out to grab the pen on Edmund's desk. As soon as his fingers touched the (intricate, designed) pen, he yelped in pain and clutched his hand to him like a wounded animal would his injured paw. Not out of fear for Arnold's phalanges, but rather out of confusion, Edmund asked his classmate what had happened.

"Your fucking pen burnt my fingers!" Arnold shouted angrily, sucking on his burnt fingers.

Very confused at this point, Edmund cautiously picked up the pen, the metal felt cool beneath his fingers just as it had every time hitherto.

"Let me see that pen." One of Arnold's brutish friends called out and tried to take it from his hands, but he too recoiled in pain. Despite the complaints about burns, there were no visible marks on neither Arnold's nor his friend's hands. It took a while for the less than brilliant children to catch on, and by the time the bell rang, the teacher still hadn't returned, five students were holding their pained fingers.

Hurrying out of the room, Edmund knew he had to find Peter so he opened the book and pulled out the pen, the pen that had still caused him no trouble, and wrote a quick where are you note. A few seconds later, letters appeared on the page spelling out _'in the library.'_ Edmund hurried off and in a few minutes he was searching the library for his brother.

"The strangest thing just happened" Edmund stated as he plopped down in the chair across from Peter.

"Oh?"

"Yeah! So some fucker-"

"Language Ed"

"So some fucker," Edmund continued, ignoring his brother's chastisement, "took my book away and pretended to read it, don't worry there were no notes saved on the page. Then he decided to try and write or something so he reached out and grabbed the pen but it burned him and a bunch of other guys tried it too and they all said it burned their fingers too. But it doesn't bother me at all." Edmund concluded and looked up at Peter expectantly. Peter paused and took his own pen out of his bag.

"Here," he said, holding the pen out to his brother, "See if you can hold this." Cautiously, Edmund reached out and touched the pen with his pinkie. As soon as his skin made contact with the writing utensil, he jumped back. Peter's pen had hurt his finger.

Nothing about these books made any sense.

After a good deal of arguments and discussions, they both decided it would be best to go talk things over with Lucy. They knew that they ran the risk of running into the older Prehensile sister as well, but Lucy had always had a better understanding of magic than the rest of them and they needed her help.

Once classes had let out for the day (Peter maintained that he couldn't miss yet another afternoon of classes), the two boys set off to Saint Finbar's. It didn't take them long to find Lucy once they got there, thankfully she wasn't talking to Susan. They quickly filled her in on everything that had happened and shown her how the books work. She too found she was unable to touch the pens.

"Have you shown them to Susan?"

"Nope" Edmund answered, "and we don't plan to. She seems to care less about Narnia each time I see her. She'd probably just tell us we have to go put them back on that dusty old shelf and then lecture us for a bit despite the fact that we didn't do anything and she isn't our mother."

"Yes she does seem to care less about Narnia now than before. I wonder if that will happen to each of us as we grow up."

"I'm older than her and I still care more about Narnia than everything in this world combined. That's off the point anyways. The point being these books."

"Yes yes, Lu," Edmund chimed in, "do tell us what you think of our books."

In all honesty, Lucy didn't really know what she thought of the books. They appeared to be a useful form of communication and there was clearly something magical about them. She also knew that there must have been a reason her brothers had found them because, judging by the pens' intense hatred of everyone else, they were the only ones that could use the books. She told all of this to her brothers. They had figured out as much as the pens were only to be used by them, but none of the children could figure out what the boys were supposed to use the books for. They had checked to see if Lucy could see the writing when it was written in the books and she could.

The children continued to discuss the books until they realized they were all famished. Edmund and Peter decided they would rather eat in a hall full of girls than wait until they got back to Stanton so the three siblings headed off to the dining hall. They spotted Susan and she came over to their table. The four of them laughed and ate and reminisced about Narnia for what was probably the thousandth time. Susan joined in, but none of her memories were as fond or vivid as the others'. Soon she grew bored of the discussion and excused herself back to her group of friends. Discussion resumed without her and before long the meal was over and it was time for the male Pevensies to depart. They gathered their things and Lucy decided she would walk them to end of the premises.

As they approached the ornate gate, they saw a small animal just outside. In the rapidly approaching darkness, it looked from afar to be a cat or a small dog, but as they drew nearer it became clear it was nothing of the sort. It had a feather affixed to its head by a gold headband, a sword at its hilt and a long, bare tail.

"Reepicheep!" Lucy ran over to the mouse and fought the urge to give him a hug deciding that twice in as many months might be too much of a blow to his dignity. The boys weren't far behind and within moments the four friends were standing together by the gate.

"High King Peter, King Edmund and Queen Lucy," the mouse said as he bowed, "I bring a message from Narnia and King Caspian. Peter looked like he was about to grab the scroll out of Reepicheep's paws in his eagerness to find out what Caspian had to say and Edmund put a hand on his arm to steady him. Reepicheep unfurled the scroll and began to read:

_"I, King Caspian X, King of Narnia, Emperor of the Lone Isles etc... request counsel with any of the four Kings and Queens who Alsan allows to pass through the gate with Sir Reepicheep. I look forward to meeting with as many of you as possible soon._

_Caspian X"_

_"_Where is Queen Susan, Your Majesties? She too should try to get through the gate with me."

"Queen Susan would not wish to accompany us." Lucy stated. Susan had told her many times how hard it was to move on from life in Narnia and their trip there last month hadn't helped matters.

Edmund, Peter and Lucy all glanced at each other. They all knew that Peter would not be able to get through. None of them said it, none of them needed to. Lucy turned and walked with Reepicheep through the gates. Both boys looked after her and Edmund began to follow, not able to look his brother in the eye.

"Ed, wait." Edmund turned back and cautiously drew his eyes up to meet Peter's, "I, uh, well, tell Caspian 'hi' for me, would you?" Edmund nodded, adjusted the strap of his bag and walked through the gate and out of sight.

Peter sighed and dropped his chin to his chest. He thought about looking for another open exit, but he knew all other gates would be closed this late. After many deep breaths, Peter gathered the strength to walk through the gate and onto the street outside.

**I hope it was worth the wait. Sorry. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Here's the next chapter.**

Unlike Peter, when Lucy, Edmund and Reepicheep stepped out of the gate, their feet hit a mossy ground and all around them danced the sounds of Narnia. They could help dancing around a bit and Lucy made a point to hug every tree and Talking Beast they passed on the short walk to Caspian's castle. Both siblings felt bad about their brother, they each knew how much he wanted to be there with them, with Caspian, but between the fresh air and the general ambience of Narnia they found themselves unable to dwell on it. Within fifteen minutes the castle came into view and five minutes after that they were being greeted by one of the guards.

As eager as they were to see their old friend again, neither child was too displeased when they were led to their quarters to change and freshen up. English school clothes weren't exactly appropriate attire for the Kings and Queens of old. Edmund was ready, his favourite sword back by his side, in a matter of minutes and Lucy not long after that. They knew their way to the throne room, and would have much preferred to just run down there themselves, they knew they must wait for Reepicheep to escort them. On the way down to the throne room, Reepicheep told them all about how he had convinced Aslan to let him go fetch them and how amazing their world was and how small all the mice are (and dreadful conversationalists too!) The children didn't mind hearing the story at all, they had missed their little mouse friend.

The walk took longer than necessary due to the many stops they had to make to greet old friends. They ran into Trufflehunter the badger, Haine the child centaur, and their DLF. Lucy didn't particularly want to leave the dwarf's company, having been much closer to him than to the Prince (now the King), but after a few minutes Edmund reminded her that their presence was needed elsewhere and they departed.

Caspian, Edmund and Lucy all knew they were supposed to maintain a courtly greeting, but as soon as the two siblings entered the room, Caspian strode over to them and there was much embracement. Once the initial greetings were put aside, they each regained their composure and acted much like the royalty they were.

"King Caspian, you requested our counsel?" Edmund asked, already regaining his Narnian way of speaking.

"Ah yes, King Edmund, a very important matter indeed, but that can and shall wait until after supper. Are you two hungry?"

Despite having eaten only forty-five minutes before, the mere thought of a Narnian banquet made the two children positively ravenous. When they approached the table, the Pevensies were started to find four place settings.

"Where is the rest of the court? And who is the fourth plate for?" Lucy inquired.

"I thought we could have a meal with just the tree of us in order to forgo proper etiquette and other tiresome traditions. As for the fourth set, I wasn't sure how many of you would be able to get here. I rather figured Susan wouldn't be coming back, but I had hoped that maybe Peter..." he trailed off. He quickly shook his head and regained his kingly composure, but no amount of poise could hide the sadness in his eyes. Edmund was somewhat relieved to see that Caspian hadn't moved on from Peter, because he knew Peter wouldn't be able to take that.

"He said to say 'hi', Peter did I mean," Edmund stated as they were sitting down, Edmund and Lucy on one side and Caspian across from them on the other, "I'm sure he would have said more, but he didn't have time seeing as I had to follow Lu and Reepicheep."

"Yes of course. Thank you for bearing the message, King Edmund."

"Can we _please _just go by our names?" Lucy butted in, "Formalities waste time and make situations a whole lot more forced and awkward." The other two laughed and had to agree.

"How much time has past in Narnia since our departure?" Lucy asked curiously. She knew it couldn't have been much time for everyone looked the same as they had before, but it still could have, potentially, been a few years.

"One month and twelve days" Caspian replied, adding hurriedly "not that I've been counting" after seeing the look Edmund and Lucy had just given each other. The shared look was not, however, due to Caspian's blatant obsession with their brother, but instead to the amount of time he had stated. Lucy spent a minute counting on her fingers just to make sure, nodded to her brother and they both turned to face Caspian.

"Same with England." They stated in almost perfect unison.

"What?"

"It has been one month and twelve days by our calendar as well."

"That is most confusing, how long did you say it was between your first and second visit?"

"Well I'm assuming by first you mean the time we were crowned and reigned. About 1300 years." Edmund said.

"What a difference. That means that this time, time must be passing in England while you are here, no?" Caspian asked.

"Time between worlds is bizarre. I do not hope to ever understand it." Lucy said before taking a bite of the most delicious berry pie she had ever tasted. Edmund and Lucy told Caspian all about England, school, and everything new in their lives. Caspian did the same and they quickly fell into pleasant conversation.

At times Caspian would glance sadly at the empty place next to him and each time this happened Edmund wanted nothing more than to somehow run back to Narnia and drag Peter back, defying all magic and rules. It would have been epic, if it were possible. Which it wasn't. So he didn't. Instead he and Lucy exchanged awkward glances until Caspian shook his head, blonde hair falling over his eyes and clearing his brain of whatever memory it had been rehashing.

After dinner, the three of them retired to one of the general rooms nearby to get down to business. It turned out that quite a few Telmarine were not as happy about living in peace with the Narnians as they had seemed in the presence of Aslan. There had been quite a few riots and a week earlier a group of about fifteen had tried to break into the castle, slaying three guards and one friend of the court who happened to be passing by.

"I have most of the men from the mini surge locked away awaiting trial, but I know not what to do with them. Aslan told me I could call you here to get your help in restoring order to the country. I am new to this, please help me.

"Of course. We are happy to stay and help." Lucy said, still unable to believe she was back in Narnia so soon. Edmund nodded in agreement and Caspian didn't try to hide his smile of relief.

"Then we shall make plans tomorrow. Rest tonight."

The next day planning didn't get started until late in the day, of course, no one had expected it to. Aside from the three creatures they had run into, they had seen none of their new Narnian friends in a month and a half and they hadn't had enough time with the few they had seen. The morning and part of the afternoon was spent calling on friends, entertaining in the castle (Caspian insisted that the castle belonged to all the Kings and Queens of Narnia, not just the current sovereign and therefore they had as much right to entertain there as he did) and getting reacquainted.

After a late dinner, Caspian, Edmund and Lucy sat down in the main planning room and got down to business. Caspian filled them in on the details of everything that had happened since they had left. A whole lot of specifics later, the King and Queen of old had a pretty good idea of how everything had happened.

"Well," Edmund began in a voice that meant business, he had become King Edmund again almost over night, "you ought to try the thirteen rebels you currently have in custody at a public hearing so the general public can see you mean business. Be fair, but strict. Do you have an idea of who played what role? Who actually killed, who only helped draw the gate etc?" Caspian nodded and Edmund looked pleased. "Good. Make sure to make their sentences proportionate to the roles they played. As for the rebel groups still at large, we should wait a while to see if the trials of their peers quiets them. If not, we shall deal with it then."

They continued to plan out the trials, trying to figure out a general sentence for each person so as not to have Caspian make a total judgment error he couldn't revoke. Lucy, who didn't like to see anyone hurt, was pushing for a lighter sentence, while Caspian was for 'death for most'. Edmund, who had been known during their reign as King Edmund the Just, proposed the most reasonable sentences that met somewhere in the middle for most of the individuals. By the time they were all happy about all of the sentences, it was supper time and they hurried off to eat their meal, this time dining like true royalty with their court. Nobody had as much fun.

After dinner, the three of them split up. Lucy decided to take a walk around the surrounding woods, accompanied by one of the Talking Mice she had grown fond of during their wait at the Stone Table last month. Caspian retreated to his study and Edmund ran back to his room to put on his favourite armour in order to practice swordplay with one of the dwarfs who took up residence in the castle.

Edmund found his armour hanging on a hanger right beside his school bag. When he tried to get the armour off the hanger, he found it was caught on the strap of his book bag. In order to detangle the two, Edmund opened the bag and wove it back through the hanger. As he opened it, he noticed the old book, something he had forgotten about in all the excitement of being back in Narnia. Suddenly, he had a thought. He quickly rummaged around in his bag until he found the pen. Opening to a blank page he scribbled _'Hey Peter. Any chance this works?'_ He stared at the page for a good long time before deciding it had probably not worked and even if it had, Peter was not looking at the book at the moment. Giving up for the moment, he shut it and hurried off to meet Gerguisd the dwarf in the courtyard.

Hours later and covered in sweat and a few bruises, Edmund trudged through the castle towards his quarters. Walking down the hall, Edmund saw light coming from Caspian's study. Confused as to why the King would still be awake, Edmund poked his head inside and saw Caspian sitting on a bay window and staring outside. Edmund was forcibly reminded of another King of Narnia he had seen sitting in the exact same way, probably remembering the exact same things.

He coughed to make his presence known and Caspian turned to glance at Edmund before returning his attention to the window.

"Hello Edmund"

"Hey, you're still awake?" Edmund questioned, clearly knowing the answer and not quite sure of why he felt the need to ask such a stupid question.

"Yeah. So are you." Caspian replied. Apparently he, too, liked pointing out the obvious. Edmund moved closer and pulled up a chair next to the windowsill. Many moments passed in silence before Caspian spoke and broke the quiet in the air.

"It's all my fault, this Telmarine rebellion and stuff."

"How do you figure that? I am more compelled to blame it on the rebels."

"I've been a horrible leader. I've been far too caught up in my own trivial problems, spent too much time thinking about him and too little time taking care of the country."

"He is bound to be on your mind, Caspian, you cannot blame yourself for that."

"Yes but it is interfering with my ability to do anything."

"He misses you too. A lot. He refused to eat anything at all for the first week we were back and even now it is a fight just to get him to eat a sandwich or sleep. He just sits there, staring off and drawing." Caspian instantly snapped out of his own self-pity mode.

"Peter isn't eating? Is he okay? He needs to eat. Do you make him eat? How little does he sleep? He needs to sleep. It's important."

"You know, I'm almost positive he would say the exact same thing about you. Want to try to get some sleep? Believe me, it is a lot easier to run a country when one is not sleep deprived." Caspian agreed and the two made their way out of the study and towards the sleeping area of the castle. They walked in a comfortable silence until it was time to go separate ways.

"Thank you" Caspian said, looking straight at Edmund.

"Anytime. See you in the morning, sleep well."

"You too."

As Caspian was walking back alone to his room he thought on everything Edmund had told him about Peter's inability to eat and sleep and thought about how it was entirely his fault and wondered if he would ever sleep well again.

**I can't promise the next one will be up by the end of this work week, but I will try. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Peter sat staring out the window for what felt like, and quite possibly was, the thousandth time. He hadn't bothered to go to class, opting to spend the time wallowing in his misery instead. His siblings were in Narnia. He was stuck in England. Caspian was in Narnia. He was stuck in England. His siblings were in Narnia with Caspian. He was stuck in England. The unfairness of it all made him want to scream, cry and throw things all at once. As it happens, throughout the day he did quite a bit of all three.

Judging by the lighting outside, it was close to eight and he knew his dorm mates would be back soon. Not wanting to have to answer questions, Peter gathered up his Chemistry books with the intention of getting some homework done in the library. Opening his bag, Peter placed the textbooks inside, and his eyes fell upon a very different sort of book. At the sight of the magic book, Peter lost it again. Magic. Edmund and Lucy were off in their land of magic and adventure and all the book did was remind him of that fact. He grabbed the book and hurled it against the wall where it fell open pages down on the floor.

After a few minutes Peter heard footsteps on the stairs and hurried to pick up his mess. As he picked up the book, his eyes fell on the page and noticed words written almost exactly in the centre. His heart leapt as he read the note from Edmund. They could communicate across worlds. Quick as lighting, Peter found his pen and wrote back _'Yes yes it works! Are you sitting by the book now? How is Narnia? Do write back!' _

_--_

Edmund plopped down on his bed exhausted from his hours of sword fighting with a very skilled opponent. As one of his attendants drew a bath for him, he took off his armour and tunic hung them up on a hanger. Climbing into his pyjamas, the sight of his book bag on the next hanger over reminded him of the book and he quickly withdrew it. Flinging it open, Edmund found Peter's note written on the page. He could have danced.

_'Pete! Peter, you reading the book? You there?'_

Peter, who hadn't let his eyes wander from the book for nearly two hours, wrote back instantaneously. _'I am here. Bloody hell, these books actually work all the way between here! Are you in Narnia? Is Caspian in Narnia? Are you there with him now? How long has it been? Is-'_

_'Yeah, I'm in Narnia. It has been the exact same amount of time here as it has there. Can you hang on just a minute?'_

_'Ed! No answer all of my questions! I asked if you were there with-'_ Once again Edmund cut him off, this time with _'Just give me three minutes, maybe five. I promise.' _

Without waiting to read Peter's reply Edmund jumped off his bed, careful not to shut the book all the way. He ran down the hall in pyjamas, flew up a flight of steps, narrowly avoided a conversation with a rather boring old tortoise, ran down a few more halls and, eventually, skidded to a halt in front of a dark mahogany door. Forgetting to knock, Edmund barged right into the room, accidentally knocking a vase over with the door in his haste.

He ran over to the bed and Caspian, already half-awake due to the sound of his favourite vase smashing to the floor, had his hand on the hilt of the sword he kept hidden by the nightstand.

"Who enters? Name yourself!"

"Edmund." Edmund gasped, trying to catch his breath.

Upon identifying his late-night intruder, Caspian quickly withdrew his hand from his sword and shot Edmund a confused and slightly irritated look. Edmund was far too excited to care.

Lighting a lamp, Edmund wasted no time in shoving the book under Caspian's nose. He was still confused, but far less irritated.

"Edmund, what is this?"

"It's a book...found it...magic...communicates...Peter has other..." As incoherent as he was being, Edmund still managed to get his point across. Eyes widening in realization, Caspian quickly grabbed the book out of Edmund's hands and started flipping through it, but, obviously, found only the small block of text from the brothers' conversation from a few minutes previous. Reaching into his nightstand, Caspian withdrew a quill and inkwell and hurried to unscrew the top.

"They won't work." Edmund stated in a much less frantic, yet still excited fashion, "Only one pen works, but it'll most likely make your hand feel as if it has been burned upon contact." Caspian frowned slightly as Edmund showed him the fountain pen for he had never seen anything like it, having only ever used a quill and ink well. Ignoring Edmund's cautionary words, he reached out to grab the pen and, of course, recoiled at the touch.

Edmund took the book back from Caspian and put it on the bed where he could write and Caspian could read any replies.

_'I'm back. And guess who is with me?'_

_'Really? Ed are you pulling my leg? If you are it is not funny. Is he really there? Is he okay? Can he write me?'_

_'Yes, reading every word. Can't write though, pen burns his hand' _

Because the words didn't appear on the page as they were being written, Caspian had no idea what Edmund had hastily scribbled, but he was far too focused on what Peter would write back to ask.

_'Oh, that's mighty inconvenient'_

_You don't say _muttered Edmund, who had just realized that he would have to transcribe all of Caspian's letters and notes to Peter, but he didn't feel the need to write it down. Instead he wrote _'Well he is reading now, so do you want to talk to him instead of me?'_

_'Of course, can you hand him the book?' _

_'Okay. I will talk to you later.'_

Edmund handed Caspian the book after closing it to erase the most recent conversation, lit another lamp and took it over to an armchair at the opposite end of the room.

--

Back in England, Peter sat huddled in an empty corner of their dormitory's living room, book open on his lap, pen hovering above the blank page. He had spent the past six weeks longing for the opportunity to speak with Caspian. Now that the chance was upon him, all of his rehearsed speeches fled his brain, leaving him with a full pen and empty brain. Realizing that he would have to write something otherwise Caspian would think the book to be broken, Peter put the pen to the parchment. With no idea what he was going to say, Peter began writing.

_'Hello, Caspian. There are so many things I would like to say, but I don't know how to say any of them.' _Peter's hand was shaking, causing the letters to come out in less than perfect handwriting, but the words were legible nonetheless. _'Words themselves cannot possibly describe how painful this month away from you has been. I wish you could write back. I wish I were there. How have you been? I know there must be something wrong with Narnia, I'm so sorry you have to deal with whatever it is. Fuck, Caspian I miss you so much. I don't know how I am supposed to go the rest of my life without having you hold me.' _Peter shook his head at himself, willing that last sentence to stop sounding so feminine. _'Sorry for blabbering on and on, but I don't really know how to say anything. I'm so happy I can finally talk to you. I think I should stop writing before I make a complete idiot of myself. I love you and I miss you. _

_ Peter._

Peter leant his head against the wall, he was unable to read what he had written so, he had no idea how he had come off sounding. He knew he hadn't sounded as eloquent as he would have liked, but it didn't really matter. He could talk to Caspian. Caspian could talk to him. He was no longer completely cut off from his love.

--

Caspian read Peter's letter through three times before calling Edmund over. As Edmund approached Caspian's side, he saw the tears of both pain and happiness that Caspian hadn't bothered to brush away. Placing a hand comfortingly on the reigning monarch's arm, he took the book and prepared himself to write a response.

"Uh Caspian I can't really write anything if you don't tell me what to write." Edmund's voice jolted Caspian out of his own thoughts and back into reality. He hadn't noticed that he had been daydreaming.

"Can you write 'hello'?"

"I think I could manage it, just say words and I will write them down. "

Pausing occasionally for Edmund to catch up, he began. Caspian decided it would be best to speak to the wall, feeling it would be too awkward to look at his love's younger brother as he spoke.

"Hello Peter. I miss you so much. Every day I miss you. I wish you could be here. Apparently the Telamrines are still unhappy so your siblings are here to help me figure out what to do. Don't worry about me though, I'm fine. It's you I'm worried about. Edmund told me you haven't been eating or sleeping." Edmund felt a little strange writing about himself, but continued to take down what Caspian said. "You need to rest, love. I know that's hypocritical, but it is true nonetheless. I hate the thought of never being able to hold you again, too. I still can't believe that you are gone for always. Always is a really long time, Peter. At least we can write each other.

I love you,

Caspian X"

The night was spent passing words of sorrow, joy, comfort and laughter. When at last the sky began to lighten and the birds began their song, it was time to put the books away and get ready for the day, both in Narnia and in England. Neither Peter nor Caspian wanted to say goodbye, but Peter had school and Caspian had a kingdom to run. Of course they could continue sending messages during the day, but not as steadily as they had been able to during the night.

Edmund shook his cramped hand as he closed the book. Sliding the pen back into the gap in the spine, smiling at Caspian.

"I wish I didn't have to dictate everything to you." Caspian said.

"You aren't the only one. I get the chance to come back to Narnia and find myself playing the role of your personal scribe and messenger."

Seeing Caspian's face fall, Edmund quickly assured him that he had been joking and that he was happy to aid them in their correspondence. He really didn't mind either. He wasn't particularly fond the idea, but thinking about how happy it was making his brother and Caspian, he knew he didn't mind.

**Well there is chapter six. To be honest I really hate the second half, but after hours of rewriting, it doesn't seem to get better so I figured I ought to just ship it out and cut my losses. My problem was that I had originally planned to write this more Edmund centric, but judging by people's reviews there is a lot of demand for a more Peter centric story. I can write it either way, it doesn't matter to me. Would people rather I keep writing scenes focusing on Peter, or should I drop them?  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**Well, hello there. It's been awhile. Essentially, I have decided to pick up this story and finish it by new years. My current outline is for eleven chapters total, but that could change. For now, here is chapter seven.**

The next day, Edmund and Lucy had a private breakfast and Edmund told her about everything that had happened the previous night.

"Peter seemed so happy and so did Caspian. It was great." Edmund yawned, clearly three hours rest hadn't been enough.

"That's wonderful!" Lucy could hardly contain her excitement, her tiny frame bouncing up and down in its chair. Edmund laughed and steadied her porridge so she wouldn't tip it over. He might have been quicker to mock her had he not reacted the exact same way the night before.

The two of them talked for over an hour exhausting every topic from Peter and Caspian to how long they would be allowed to stay in Narnia for this time around.

"I love it here! I hope we get to stay for a long time! Maybe as long as the time before last! Oh Ed, wouldn't that be wonderful?"

Quietly cracking into a soft-boiled egg, Edmund speculated about the time they would have in Narnia. In ways he hoped it would never end. Wars in their world were far worse in a lot of ways, at least from Edmund's perspective. They were full of bombs, terror and genocide. He couldn't stop the bombs from falling, quell the terror of his loved ones, or prevent genocide. Edmund the child couldn't do much to help the war efforts in England. Edmund, King of Narnia, Duke of Lantern Waste, Count of the Western March and Knight of the Noble Order of the Table, however, had ruled Narnia for fifteen years, acted as a judge for his people, and helped command the troops during the Battle of Beruna. Edmund King of Narnia was able to help people in ways that Edmund the child could never hope to.

Narnia was a wonderful place, but he knew he loved his home as well. In the last term, he had made many friends and hated the thought of leaving all of them behind. When time had stopped just for them it had been easier, but now everyone was growing up and moving on. Who knew how long he and Lucy would stay in Narnia this time? By the time they went back, all of their friends could have grown up and moved on. Come to think of it, what were they going to tell people when they got home? What if they stayed away for years and had to explain their lack of physical changes?

"Hey Lu? What will we tell people when we get back?"

"We could say we went on holiday I guess. We should probably just stick to whatever story Peter and Susan have come up with already."

Sitting back in his chair, Edmund breathed a sigh of relief. Peter had to have invented some story to explain their absence, which thankfully meant he wouldn't have to.

After breakfast the two children made their way to the main conference hall to meet up with Caspian. The trials weren't until the following day, but there was still other planning to take care of. Caspian was already in the hall, a grin on his face, the circles under his eyes the only indication of his sleepless night. The three children tried their best to focus on the Telmarine rebels, but for every suggestion on how to deal with the rebels they seemed to voice three on how to make it so Caspian could touch the pen.

That afternoon they tried everything they could think of from dwarf-crafted gloves to coating the pen in a special thermal resistant substance found only on the very peak of Mt. Pire, the tallest mountain in Harfang. The pen burned a hole straight through the leather and melted the coating right off. Disheartened by their lack of success, the three monarchs headed back into the castle where they found a lovely dinner waiting for them. At the beginning of the meal, the children tried their best to discuss Narnian politics, but over the course of the meal talk turned to the books once again.

"Why do they want to be kept so secret? What sort of magic is it?" Lucy inquired.

"In my fifteen years here, I've never seen anything like it. It doesn't strike me as Narnian magic when I think about it. It is almost too crude."

"How do you mean, friend Edmund?"

" Well when I think of Narnian magic I think of something more beautiful and less..." Edmud gestured in the air, almost as if he hoped to grab the right words out of thin air, "... less concrete and exact."

"Like when Aslan came back to life at the Stone Table!" Lucy offered as an example.

"Exactly! Like the Stone Table." Edmund had to repress the chills that came over him whenever he looked back on his role leading up to the cataclysmic event. A favourite pastime of all Narnians, Lucy and Caspian continued to recount all the known cases of magic in Narnian history. As he listened contentedly to his sister and his friend ramble on, Edmund's mind drifted to potentially related matters.

The book. Magic. Peter and Caspian. He felt as if they were meant to find the books specifically for the purpose of allowing Peter and Caspian to communicate. If this were the case, he couldn't see the books as the end. Sure, for now they were wonderful because they were more than either party had ever dreamed of, but in time, it wouldn't be enough.

Edmund may have looked young, but he was far from naïve and he knew that written words couldn't provide the necessary physical aspects of a relationship. As gross as the thought of his brother in an intimate relationship was, he knew it had been the case and would need to be in the future. No matter how much Peter and Caspian loved each other, the harsh reality held true.

If Peter and Caspian were to be forever denied these relations, each would, eventually, feel compelled to move on. Either that, or wallow in their misery for their entire lives. Both of these outcomes were very conceivable eventualities and neither seemed very appealing in Edmund's mind. This limited communication would only end up harming all parties involved in the end. The pain would only be worse for Caspian and Peter, dwelling on this hopeless relationship of the past, unwilling to break the fragile tie the books provided. Assuming he had figured correctly, and they had been meant to use the books as a means of communication, then this couldn't have been the end Aslan had in mind.

Standing up, Edmund excused himself to his rooms. It could just be wishful thinking on his part, but he was convinced that there had to be some way for Caspian and his brother to be together. All that he had to do was to figure out how.

Eyes closed, Edmund could feel sleep beginning to envelope him when light flooded his room as the door to his chamber was opened. In the doorway stood Caspian, clutching the book to him.

"You have not forgotten our designated hour for the sending and receiving of missives, have you King Edmund?"

Obviously he had, but he just shook his head and lit the lamp by his bedside, retrieving the pen from his nightstand as well. The hour wore on and judging by the messages the two were sending, they did not yet share in his trepidation. This time, the joy of acting as a scribe was mingled with a sense of apprehension and discomfort. By the time the hour had drawn to a close and Caspian slipped out of his room, Edmund's heart was uneasy, but his determination to solve the puzzle was greater than ever and with that thought, he drifted quietly to sleep.

The next morning was utter chaos. Edmund awoke to the sound of a horn being blown in short rapid bursts. Drawing his robe tightly around his body and tying it over his sleep tunic, he hurried outside. Finding Lucy in similar shape, the two scanned the crowd for Caspian. He didn't appear to be there, and when Edmund lowered his gaze from looking above the heads of the Narnia dwarves in front of him, he found Lucy had disappeared.

"Brilliant" he muttered to himself. When it became clear Caspian wasn't going to appear to speak to the crowd anytime soon, Edmund made his way to the podium, wishing he'd taken the time to get dressed properly. He tried yelling to make himself heard over both the people, and the horn, but the noise drowned out his voice. Deciding his only chance was to stand there and hope the crowd quieted as they noticed him. Luckily, a hush fell over the crowd as people nudged their friends into silence, turning their attention to Edmund. The horn was still going, but by yelling, Edmund was able to drown it out.

"People, people please. Fear nothing yet. I know not what is going on at the moment, but Queen Lucy has gone to find information as to why we have been called here at such an ungodly hour. In the meantime, can I get about fifteen volunteers to collect clothing from the general supply shed. I do not want people going back to their rooms, in case there is a reason we were called out of them." Twenty men stepped forward, and Edmund dismissed them with thanks.

"Now," Edmund continued " will anyone missing any family or friends please raise a hand in the air?" about thirty hands shot up. Edmund pointed to the first person he saw, and she told him she couldn't find her grown son, Atticus.

"Would Atticus please come forward if you are present?" A strong, burly man of about seventeen emerged from the crowd and made to join his mother. Things ran in a similar fashion until the men returned with clothing for everyone, and only one girl still stood with her hand in the air.

"Yes miss?"

"I can't find my brother."

"What is his name?"

"Herdley, your highness, but I doubt he'll reply if you call his name, seeing as he's only two and all." Fear coursed through Edmund's body as he wondered how he was going to find a missing two-year-old in a crowd of nearly three hundred people. He told the girl, only about ten-years-old by the looks of it, to stand forward, and dismissed everyone to find clothes in the proper size. After the crowd had diverted its attention, he focused his gaze on the girl.

"Where is the last place you saw your brother?"

"In my room, highness. I was out getting us some milk for breakfast. We like the crème, so I have to get there early." The girl kept talking and Edmund learned that she had been walking the corridor when the alarm had been sounded, and ushered outside despite her protestations. Edmund wanted to go back up to the room to look for the baby, but he couldn't leave the crowd to fend for itself. Similarly, he couldn't let the child go back to her room alone and risk her getting hurt if the danger proved serious.

'See, this is why there were four of us' Edmund thought, and, just like that, Lucy appeared at his side. "How did you do that, and where did you scarper off to?" He asked.

"Do what? and I went to go find out who was blowing the horn and why."

Stopping to listen, Edmund realized the noise had ceased. "And?"

"The rebels are advancing on the castle. Any sign of Caspian?" Edmund shook his head wordlessly. The Narnian castle was under attack, and its current king was nowhere to be found. Taking one deep breath to gather his thoughts, he exhaled and used that breath to begin taking

control.

"Luce, I need you to go with this girl and help her find her brother. When you've found him, report back to me." Lucy nodded, took the girl's hand, and started off towards the nearest door. As soon as they had left, Edmund resumed his position on the podium. Attention once again fell to him, and he couldn't help but note on the fact that now everyone was dressed but him. Pushing that thought aside, Edmund addressed the crowd.

"The castle is under attack." Brilliant first words. The crowd erupted into shouted questions and worried exclamations. Edmund quieted them with a raise of his hand before continuing.

"It is well within our power to defend ourselves, but we have to move quickly. I need all children and mothers of children to make their way to the large safe-room down below the kitchens. Does anyone know where the entrance is? Good, Ma'am would you be so kind as to lead the others. Stay together now."

It took about five minutes to ensure that all children were out of harms way. Edmund then addressed the remaining crowd members, assigning everyone a job that best befit their abilities and the needs of the people. Once everyone had set to work, Edmund climbed down from the podium to begin his search for Caspian. Fear coursed through him as he methodically searched the castle, but to no avail. Out of breath and empty-handed, Edmund returned to the courtyard, where the castle was preparing the defenses. The prospect of protecting a fortified castle from a group of disorganized rebels did little to unsettle a seasoned King of Narnia; the fact that the current Narnian Sovreign had gone missing at the same time did.

**Well, it's a bit rusty but I feel good about being back with the story. The next chapter will be up tomorrow (barring any tornados, floods, pandemic flus, etc...). In the meantime, reviews are lovely! And if there's anyone out there from when I started publishing this story, let me know you're still around because that would pretty much make my day.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

His thorough and increasingly frantic search of the castle, while not resulting in the location of a missing monarch, caused Edmund to locate the shreiking alarm. Edmund's mind cleared as the ringing died out, and he knew his efforts were needed elsewhere. Caspian would not hide from battle, nor sleep through the alarm. As much as it gave him stomach knots to think about it, the thing preventing Caspian from assisting in the counter-attack most likely wasn't hiding in the corner somewhere. Trying not to think of Caspian, or what Peter would say when he found out, Edmund returned to the front.

Lucy, having located Herley and taken him to his sister and the other children, was back on the scene, directing the leaders of each group on their actions. Without a proper battle plan, she had reverted to the Base Plan for Attack, instructing the archers to fire off the top two levels, those in charge of the trebuchets to release only while the archers re-loaded for lack of ammunition, and putting at least one able-bodied man at every possible scaling point.

_For the child sent away from every battle field, she has done a damn-fine job of waging war._ Edmund thought to himself as he ran to join his sister. A look of relief spread across her face when she saw her brother.

"Thank goodness you're here!"

"Why? You knew perfectly well I was fine."

"Yeah, but still, I think I prefer healing the people after the battle, instead of sending them to fight in it." Edmund nodded sympathetically, being mentally capable of staging an attack was very different than being emotionally able. It didn't surprise him that Lucy took issue with sending people to their potential deaths, and having forced her to do so only added to the guilt he was trying to temporarily repress.

The Basic Plan seemed to serve their purposes well enough, and Edmund decided to continue with it until the rebel army started showing signs of potential retreat. Wanting to take some prisoners for questioning, but unwilling to open the gates of the castle unnecessarily, Edmund shouted a change of attack to his primary generals who spread the word quickly to those working under them. Within seconds the Narnian attack stood completely still while the archers, well out of view of the rebels, reloaded with their new weapon. The rebels' confusion at this sudden cessation quickly turned to terror as the first firework sped its way down to earth. Having been artfully designed by their top physicist only weeks earlier, these firework arrows burned feircly for exactly one hundred feet, the perfect distance for shooters off the top level, before disappearing altogether. Not knowing this, the rebels retreated in panic, fearing some sort of detonation.

The fireworks served their purpose, and the rebels retreated quickly- leaving their wounded behind. Edmund sent men out to collect said wounded while he gathered everyone else in the foyer and Lucy made her rounds to check on their own injured soldiers.

"We fought courageously and well," he started, adressing the crowd of tired, but mostly pleased men and women, "because of your efforts today, the citizens of remain free. I thank you for your courage and bravery. May Aslan be with you." Concluding his inspiring speech, Edmund gave final instructions to put the castle right again, and departed. Checking in first at the infirmary, Edmund found Lucy with the doctors and nurses, going bed to bed, talking with patients and helping in whatever way she could. Not all required her elixer, but no one has ever walked away from a talk with Lucy feeling worse for it. Thankfully, the rebels had planned a particularly poor attack, _reminicent of Peter's attack on Miraz' castle_, Edmund couldn't help but think, and the Narnians suffered few casualties.

After visiting the infirmary, Edmund walked through all the groups, making sure they had the necessary resources to complete their tasks. Mutterings filtered through the castle, wondering where King Caspian had been during the battle. Some were concerned, others angry. Incapable of assuaging their anger and fears at the present time, Edmund continued on until his travels eventually led him to the dungeons. Taking a breath for strength, he pushed open the door to find his prisoners in various states of disarray. Most surprisingly, he found Lucy there with a few nurses, helping to treat them.

"Queen Lucy! But you were just upstairs in the infirmary! So were you, Nurse Erica, Nurse Allan!"

"We have done everything we could for them. Our services are needed here more."

"May I please speak with you for a moment?" Edmund asked, careful to preserve his composure. When Lucy had joined him outside, out of earshot of the nurses, prisoners and guards, he turned on her, the frustration and anxiety built up inside him coming out in his tone, "why are you healing them, Lucy? They are the ones attacking us!"

"They are people, too. Though if you can't see things that way, think of it as an investment. They wouldn't be much use to you dead."

He knew his sister was right, as much as it killed him to admit, and she knew his anger did not truly stem from her treating the injured.

"Any word on Caspian?" she asked.

"None." Lucy nodded. She knew her job at the present time was to heal the sick, and neither of them would get anywhere sitting scared in a hallway. With a mutually reassuring glance, the siblings returned to their prisoners of war.

A mile away, deep underground, the leader of the rebel army did the same.

Caspian awoke hours earlier in darkness, mind hazy, a sharp pain in his side. The shackles binding him to the hay-coverered floor restricted his movement and rendered him incapable of investigating the source of the pain. Over the following hours, Caspian's mind cleared considerably, and while he could not rid himself of the stabbing pain in his side, it did not appear to increase in severity, which comforted him slightly. By the time the rebel leader opened the cell door, blinding Caspian with the dim light of the hall candles, the King had negotiated his body into a slightly more dignified position with his arms at his side, face turned toward the door.

"So, then, dear Caspian, it appears we have an issue."

"Why yes, Arnie, it does." It took Caspian only seconds to indentify his old fencing instructor, who faltered at being addressed by name.

"As I always told you, it's Arnold to most and Mr. Jansen to you!" Caspian snorted, remembering fondly how he and the other staff members had always refered to him as Arnie in order to get a rise out of him. Evidently, it still worked. However, now did not seem like a good time to anger his enemies, and Caspian bit back the stream of retorts flooding through his brain.

Instead, he met Arnie's eyes and asked the man's intentions.

"I _intend_ to rule this pathetic country. Someday, everyone shall bow to King Arnold and quake with fear when they cross me, as you no doubt do now. Caspian did not, infact, quake with fear, but thought it best not to mention this to Arnie, who continued with his schpiel, "You, Caspian, are necessary as a form of collatoral. Once the two British Brats come to rescue you, I shall have no blood kings or queens standing in my way."

_Ah. _

"In the meantime, I shall release you from your shackles, but remember, we can always reinstate them, and have plenty more Valerienne Root."

_Valerienne! No wonder I can't remember anything. _Somehow the rebels had gotten ahold of the enhanced sedative and used it on the king.

"I understand." And with that Arnie gave the orders and a guard entered the cell, removed the shackles, and opened the small, high window Caspian had not noticed in the darkness. Light from sunrise barely trickled into the room, but after the guard followed Arnie out of the cell, shutting the door and effectively cutting off all artificial light, Caspian could still make out basic shapes. He did not, however, need light to finally identify the object causing pain to his side. His newly freed hand felt the leather binding of a book, the corner cutting sharply into his abdomen.

Struggling to refrain from shouting for joy, Caspian held the book as close to the window as possible, waiting for the sunlight to illuminate the page enough to read any writing. It took about half an hour before Caspian could recognize writing on the page, nay pages, and a bit longer still before he could make out what the writing said. When he finally could, what he read broke his heart.

_Hi Cas!..._

_ Cas? You there?..._

_ Caspian, did you forget?..._

_ Edmund, are you there?..._

_ Guys, it's been half an hour I'm getting bored…_

_ Okay I'll just doodle until you answer…_

The writing then stopped for a few pages, replaced by fabulous illustrations of Narnia, all places with special significance to Caspian and Peter. Aslan's Howe, where they had first kissed, the orchard in which they had walked together, the library in which they had spent hours swapping secrets. The memories pained Caspian as he relived them through Peter's drawings. Eventually the writing continued, this time with a more frantic note.

_It's just, I don't want to head off to bed because I know everything is probably fine and you probably just forgot and fell asleep…_

"Never"

_…but I worry a lot and I'm worrying a bit now. I suppose I should just go to bed…_

_ I can't. I'm sorry, I know I'm coming off awful paranoid, but just, write back when you get these messages, okay?_

"Not okay. Not. Okay." Caspian whispered vehimently to the book. Peter would continue looking to the book for answers, answers he could not give, and Edmund was not around to give for him. Sure enough, messages soon started appearing in the book of an even more frantic nature.

_What's going on, guys? I know you're awake by now…_

_ Has something happened? I'm so worried…_

And so it went throughout the day, with every message Peter sent, Caspian's resolve grew stronger. When spirals first appeared on the page, a nervous habit Peter had told Caspian about in the library that one night, it took all Caspian had not to shut the book in frustration. Not wanting to lose the illustrations from the previous night, the king contented himself with shaking the book in a frustrated manner. At the less-than-optimal display of annoyance, an object flew from the spine of the book, landing in the haystack. Upon investigation, made difficult by the setting sun, Caspian identified the object as the pen. He stared at it, comfortably cradled in a nest of hay.

_Fucking pen._ He didn't know the word, but Edmund seemed to use it frequently when angered, and Caspian had to admit it helped quell some of the frustration raging in his mind. With a deep breath, he resolved to let the pen have the bed for the night, and returned to the book by the window. However, upon seeing the message Peter had written in his absence _(Oh god, Caspian, I'm so scared. Please be okay. Please…)_ the king grabbed the book, walked straight to the haystack and picked up the pen.

As if writing with the wrong hand didn't provide enough challenges, for Caspian had enough sense not to ruin his dominant hand, the pen instantly began searing his flesh. Struggling just to hold on Caspian fought to write one message to Peter. With much effort he managed to write, in barely legible writing:

_I'm fine. Can't write. Love you always._

**I hope you all liked it! For the next chapter, I could include a segment set in England or continue straight on with the Narnian plot. Thoughts? And as always, reviews are greatly appreciated! **


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